明清时期沿运地区的生态衰变与婴幼儿际遇

The Environmental Decay and the Encountering of Infants and Young Children in the Ming and Qing Dynasties Along the Great Canal

明清时,为了维持东移的运河,朝廷将黄河整体南移,并在不适合建立水库的平原和高地修、扩洪泽湖、微山湖等巨型水体,造成江北沿运和淮、黄之间乃至海河流域年年被淹,生存资源严重匮乏。在家庭内部面临食物不足以存活全部人口时,强势的成人往往牺牲弱势的婴幼。沿运地区的灾荒不是人口增长、土地偏少造成的马尔萨斯困境,而是生存环境被人为破坏所致,环境危机及其异化的婴幼观念威胁到人类自身的存续。当近代关爱婴幼实践在某些地区开展时,抱持崇老轻幼观念的国人存在着怀疑甚至仇视这种基本的人道行为的现象,这不是中外文化的冲突,而是晚清国人自身新旧观念的差异所致。

During the Ming and Qing dynasties,in order to maintain the eastward Canal and ensure the transportation of tribute grain,the imperial court moved the Yellow River southward,moreover,built and expanded giant water bodies such as Hongze and Weishan lakes in plains and highlands where were not suitable for establishing reservoirs,resulting in annual flooding of the Yellow River and the Huai River,as well as severe scarcity of living resources.The dominant adults in their families often sacrificed weaker infants and young children when faced with severe survival crises.The majority of famines in the coastal areas were not caused by population growth and land limitation,but rather by destruction of the living environment.The environmental crisis and the distorted thought of adults to infants and young children threatened the survival of humanity themselves.When the practice of caring for infants and young children was carried out in certain regions in modern times,there was a phenomenon of suspicion and even hatred among Chinese people who held the tradition of respecting the elderly and despising the young.This was not a conflict between Chinese and foreign cultures,but a result of the differences in their own beliefs during the late Qing Dynasty.